Although I found a similar topic, about which electric guitar is best http://www.metalstorm.ee/forum/topic.php?topic_id=1674&topicsearch=&page=1, it didn't answer my questions, so I'm starting a new thread.

I don't know much about electric guitars, so now I'm thinking of buying one, I need some help. I don't usually like temporary solutions, so my first thought was to buy an exensive, good guitar, so when I become an expert, I won't need to buy a new and better one... But many people advised me of buying a cheap one to get started with, and later, when I'll have more knowledge and experience, buy a good one...

Well, I want something not too cheap, to meet some generally accepted standards... So tell me your opinion, what do you think it would be a good choice to start with. I also don't know anything about those magnects and what they're used for (why 3 and not 2 etc.)... Also what should I be aware of, before buying? Give me some tips from your own experience. I want something heavy enough to play heavy metal!
Also I'm thinking of not buying an amplifier since I can connect the guitar to my pc and manage there all those needed by an amplifier...

if you want to play metal you should check out the kerry king signature bc rich-i never layed my paws on an electric guitar before but i'd definetely check it out if i would think of buying one

im not very much in to guitar eithers. But i would advice you to go down to you local musik store and ask there they sure know what to pick.

Yeah, I'll visit the store, but I want to know some things first, because they are able to sell to me, the first thing they wanna get rid of!

Maybe you should take a look at Ibanez jumpstart series.
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/electric_guitars/ibanez/grx40/index.html
Reading reviews for various guitars will be in your best interest, I think.

whatever you do, i strongly suggest agaisnt yamahas. they make good starter guitars, but the problem with them is a) they are WAY too common, and there wont any originality left in your guitar. b) the company has expanded over everything! from making bikes to amps to other stuff. they havent specified on their most dominant product.

if you want a guitar that will last, with a decent amount of price, you can get cort gutiar. look into their 'EVL series' or even the Zenox series: modle: Z44. BC rich is another company that makes decent guitars that look awsome, and last. humm, if you are a fan of Gibson guitars(Slash from guns n roses), then i suggest getting a Dillion guitar instead. those guitars are a) VERY RARE. b) their sound quality is very similar. c) these gutiars usually out last jacksons, fenders, gibsons. and d) they arent all TOO expensive. they are much cheaper than gibsons, but pretty expensive when compared to BC RICH and YAMAHA.

those lil magnets that you were talking about...i'm guessing you meant pickups. there are 2 basic types of pickups. there are the single coil(most commonly found on any telecasters/fenders etc). these are just small pieces of plastic with 6 metal 'dots' on em. and then there are the Humbuckers that are often found on Gibson/Epiphone gutiars. these are basically 2 single coilds shoved into one. sound wise, i personally think the difference is minimal. but humbuckers usually make good rhythm guitars, and single coils usually make good lead guitars. now often enough you will get guitars that have 3 single coil guitars. each have different settings that you can switch on too. normally the lowest pickup(towards the oposite side of the TOP of the guitar, or head) has the most cleanest tone. and the highest pickup has a more 'dirt' full sound that is good for distorted rhythm. but they can be mixed and matched. and then there are those guitars that come with both, a humbucker, and a pickup(usually its 2 of one, and then the 3rd is different. like 2 humbuckers, and one single coil, or the other way around).

before buying, i would suggest going into a well equipped guitar store and trying out all the guitars. well, not all, but the ones that interest you in any way. if you are thinking of doing lead, then most guitars come with 21 frets(those lil bars on the long neck of the guitar). but if a guitar has more frets(ibenez usually has 24. new cort gutiars have 22. some have 23 etc...) then its an added bonus. but its not a 'must have'. but yeah, try fucking around with different types of guitars. some guitars have some really unusual shapes of the neck(like they might be flat from the back of the neck) and that may, or may not effect the way you play. so just pick up random guitars, play around with them, even if youdont know how to play anything, experiment, see what you find comfortable. and there are different body shapes of guitars as well, like les paul, explorer, telecaster, beast, warlock etc. some guitars may look AWSOME but they are really uncomfortable to play. like a flying V for example.

and then last but not least, talk to different people who can play guitar, see what they have to say.

Sounds like Soliloquy laid it down pretty well. I don't know much myself, but for beginers it's popular to get a Fender Strat', pretty common guitar though. It seems like BC Rich has built up a big following over the last ten years thanks to some newer bands, and the likes of Kerry King, they look awsome but it seems like every other band trying to be or look extreme has them. I've always like Gibson/Epiphone, and having played around with a couple I sure would have liked to get one, they just feel nice and comfortable, pretty light too compared to my Ibanez.
Definitely go play around with them, I would think that if you can afford a nicer one then to just go with that, this way you have the potential for great sound without having to buy yet another guitar. But that's just me, I've had my guitar for years and the only thing I dislike is the weight of the thing.

Here's what i know of guitars:

BC Rich only make good expensive guitars, in other words the low-end ones are kinda' crap.

Trying out guitars in the shop won't help you that much as with the same amp & pedal settings most guitars will sound the same(only experts will tell the difference).

Usually, the more pick-ups the better but i know a friend that has a Fender Telocaster with only one pick-up and it sounds great!

If you want a "heavy metal" sound any guitar will do really, it depends more on the amp & pedal!(i connected an acoustic-electric guitar through my friend's set-up and it sounded preatty "heavy metal").

Regarding 'heavyness', Ibanez has generally a lot of chunk, Gibson has good attack and Fender has good sustain (i'm generalising).

To conclude i'd say get a cheapish guitar but expensive amp and pedal.

I got my first electric guitar this year and I also thought I'd get a pretty cheap one and a very flexible one because I didn't only want to play metal with it, but also rock and other stuff, so I bought an Ibanez GSA60 which is pretty much a starter model with a humbucker and two single coils, so you can get out a very diverse sound because you can switch between those. you can play Clapton-like country sounds that sound like a steel guitar, you can also make it sound like an acoustic guitar and with a decent amp (I have a Marshall MG15CD which is pretty basic), you can also get a very good metal sound out of it. I paid about 170? for the guitar and 180? for the amp since my mom didn't want to pay more. I tried out a gibson as well, but it just didn't fit for me.
I'd recommend to ask the guy at the store to show you cheaper models (there's no use in buying something expensive when you're just starting up on an electric. You can also mention that you want to go into the "rock and metal" music (the salesman asked me about what I wanted to play with it) and he will look for something that fits you. Like remus said, it's not so important what the guitar can do, but what your effects do (for metal purposes). You should also be asked to try the guitar out. Don't be afraid if you never had an electric guitar in your hands: the only thing that matters is that you feel that the guitar fit in your hands and that the neck doesn't feel awkward. I wouldn't be looking for a guitar with the most features or the best name or whatever (like don't buy a jackson just because it says Randy Rhoads...) but for the one that you feel the most confident with. In doing that, I ended up having a cheap, blue guitar, but I am happy about picking it up every day because I feel as if it was made for my hands and it's not uncomfortable to play.
Another thing: you should ask the guy at the shop if you could try out the exact guitar you're buying because sometimes, the cable might not work and it's always better to check it first than coming to the store again.

Hm... there's a diverge in your opinions... I'm watching very carefully all of your sayings... You all seem to have a point. I'm going to pay a visit to a near-by store with a friend of mine to "test" some guitars and come back again with my conclusions.
In the meanwhile, feel free to add any comment that might help me with this gordian knot
Thanks guys, I highly appreciate your help.

Written by Soliloquy on 13.10.2006 at 00:45

whatever you do, i strongly suggest agaisnt yamahas. they make good starter guitars, but the problem with them is a) they are WAY too common, and there wont any originality left in your guitar. b) the company has expanded over everything! from making bikes to amps to other stuff. they havent specified on their most dominant product.

Yamaha makes some great stuff for the money.....who cares if they're common if they do the job and do it well? Remember, they also make everything from total beginner guitars up to some relatively high-end stuff. And while I agree that Yamaha is the very definition of the word "conglomerate," that doesn't necessarily mean that any of their stuff is "bad."

Quote:
if you want a guitar that will last, with a decent amount of price, you can get cort gutiar. look into their 'EVL series' or even the Zenox series: modle: Z44. BC rich is another company that makes decent guitars that look awsome, and last. humm, if you are a fan of Gibson guitars(Slash from guns n roses), then i suggest getting a Dillion guitar instead. those guitars are a) VERY RARE. b) their sound quality is very similar. c) these gutiars usually out last jacksons, fenders, gibsons. and d) they arent all TOO expensive. they are much cheaper than gibsons, but pretty expensive when compared to BC RICH and YAMAHA.

Dillions aren't bad, but calling them "VERY RARE" and saying they "usually out last jacksons, fenders, gibsons..." is a little bit over the top. You don't see a whole lot of them, largely because they're not particularly well known. I know there are at least a few dealers in Canada, but how do we know about their availability in Greece? Now, when you say they outlast all these other brands, where did you even get that? I'm not suggesting that they can't, but if you're talking about those companies' mid-to-high end products, then there's no reason that, for example, a USA Jackson could last just as long, if not longer, than a Korean Dillion....unless the owner of the Dillion babies their guitar, and the owner of the Jackson abuses it.

Quote:
those lil magnets that you were talking about...i'm guessing you meant pickups. there are 2 basic types of pickups. there are the single coil(most commonly found on any telecasters/fenders etc). these are just small pieces of plastic with 6 metal 'dots' on em. and then there are the Humbuckers that are often found on Gibson/Epiphone gutiars. these are basically 2 single coilds shoved into one. sound wise, i personally think the difference is minimal. but humbuckers usually make good rhythm guitars, and single coils usually make good lead guitars. now often enough you will get guitars that have 3 single coil guitars.

The first part of this is pretty much right, but a bit over-simplified. A pickup is essentially an electromagnet, and works on the same basic principle as a dynamic microphone. There is a very thin wire coiled around magnetic polepieces (usually either one per string, or one wide bar/blade for all of the strings) mounted in a bobbin (the plastic part). A single coil pickup has a characteristic that some people find very annoying, while some have no problem with it...there is a hum of a particular frequency that will always come out of a true single coil pickup. In the US, it's 60Hz. In Europe, it's 50Hz. A "humbucker" is called that because the second coil that's added to it is wound in the opposite direction and is the opposite magnetic polarity of the first coil. What this does is cancels out some of the common frequencies between the two coils, because the signals from them are 180º out of phase...the most important one of these frequencies being the hum normally associated with single coil pickups.

In terms of the differences in sound, a single coil typically has a thinner, clearer sound to it than a humbucker. They also tend to be lower output than humbuckers, so they often don't sound quite as powerful. There are some humbuckers that are made to fit into the space of a single coil, which sound somewhere between the typical single coil and humbucker sounds, and they cancel out the single coil hum. Either type of pickup can work equally well for rhythm or lead playing, it just comes down to personal taste.

Quote:
each have different settings that you can switch on too. normally the lowest pickup(towards the oposite side of the TOP of the guitar, or head) has the most cleanest tone. and the highest pickup has a more 'dirt' full sound that is good for distorted rhythm. but they can be mixed and matched. and then there are those guitars that come with both, a humbucker, and a pickup(usually its 2 of one, and then the 3rd is different. like 2 humbuckers, and one single coil, or the other way around).

The pickup closest to the bridge of the guitar will have a brighter, more "twangy" sound than the one(s) closer to the neck. Typically this is the one you'll want to use for any sort of fast riffing, because it will have better clarity and sound more aggressive through distortion. However, when played through a clean amp, it tends to sound very harsh and annoying using the bridge pickup. Most people will switch to the neck pickup for clean playing, and in some cases for lead playing...for example, sweep picking sounds much better with the neck pickup than the bridge pickup, because it sounds smoother.

Some common pickup configurations are HxH, SSS, HxS, HSH, SSH, Hxx, and occasionally HHH. The H stands for "humbucker" and the S stands for "single coil," and each example starts with the bridge pickup and then goes in order to the neck. If there's an "x," it just means that there's no pickup between the others.

Quote:
before buying, i would suggest going into a well equipped guitar store and trying out all the guitars. well, not all, but the ones that interest you in any way. if you are thinking of doing lead, then most guitars come with 21 frets(those lil bars on the long neck of the guitar). but if a guitar has more frets(ibenez usually has 24. new cort gutiars have 22. some have 23 etc...) then its an added bonus. but its not a 'must have'. but yeah, try fucking around with different types of guitars. some guitars have some really unusual shapes of the neck(like they might be flat from the back of the neck) and that may, or may not effect the way you play. so just pick up random guitars, play around with them, even if youdont know how to play anything, experiment, see what you find comfortable. and there are different body shapes of guitars as well, like les paul, explorer, telecaster, beast, warlock etc. some guitars may look AWSOME but they are really uncomfortable to play. like a flying V for example.

Definitely go to a guitar store and try out whatever you can. If you have any friends who play guitar and really know their stuff when it comes to equipment, have them go with you (you can't always trust the people who work in guitar stores...they'll try to sell you some piece of shit guitar and tell you it's great, just because they have too many of that model in the store). I've found that it's actually more common for guitars to come with 22 frets than any other number...Gibsons usually have 22, many Fenders do, Schecters, some Ibanez models, Charvels, etc. Fender Telecasters and some Stratocaster models have 21, but it's actually not that common. Guitars with 24 frets are pretty common as well...Ibanez RG series, Jacksons, B.C. Rich, etc...basically your typical "shred' type guitars. You don't need to have 24 frets for playing lead, but it can be nice to have.

As for shapes, definitely see what you like the looks of, as well as the way it plays. Guitars with bodies similar to Strats balance very well, and are comfortable to play sitting down, but something more like a B.C. Rich Beast or a V styled guitar tend to be uncomfortable while sitting down, but they weren't designed for playing that way...they were designed to be guitars that you would stand up with on stage.

Quote:
and then last but not least, talk to different people who can play guitar, see what they have to say.

The bottom line is, try everything you can and see what's the most comfortable to you. A cheap guitar can be modified to sound and play a bit better, and sometimes it's worth the money to do that when you're able to recognize what the problems are. Other times, it's just not worth it. Schecter makes some great beginner-level guitars, you should check those out if you have access to some.


I'd like to leave you with one more suggestion...for your first guitar, don't get something with a "whammy bar" (vibrato system, "tremolo," or "trem"), especially a Floyd Rose styled one. While these can be great for an experienced player, they'll only frustrate a beginner, because if they're not set up properly, the guitar won't stay in tune, and they can be very time-consuming to get set up and tuned.

i dont knwo about you, but i got my first guitar with a whammy bar. at first i didnt use it all that much, but about a year into playing, i started using it more and more. but then again, the strings got used to the guitar, and it made it a whole lot easier to use it.

as for the yamaha comment, yamaha may make higher end guitars, but ive seen way too many yamaha gutiars break down all too easily. a few of my friends bought a few yamahas(dont know the modles) that ranged from 150 canadian bucks, to 600, and majority of them had major problems iwth their pickups, their knobs, volume controls, statics and tons of other annoying things. i wont lie, yamaha does make awsome beginers guitars, but ive seen way too many break down, and therfore i wont stick to them

as for the dillions, same thing. i would say dillion are rare guitars not becuase they are hard to find, but becuase they are hand made. not all of the dillions out there. but a lot of them are hand made, VS some mass produced companies like cort gutiars or something else. and where did i get that about them lasting much longer than other guitars? Long & Mcquades(or whatever you wanna call em), and a few other guitar stores. at first i didnt believe those random stroes, but then when long n mcquade said that, then yeah. they basically said that dillions hardly ever come in to be repaired, and only one guy in that paticular shop had to fix a dillion simply coz some guy kept it out in the rain for whatever reason. but other than that, dillions havent given them any problems, where as other guitars did... but then again, now that i think about it, maybe the reason why dillions are not that likly to break up on you is coz they arent all that common gutiars when speaking about fenders and gibsons. the more fenders you have, the more likly their average of breaking up are higher. but meh...

First of all BC's and Peavy Gutars are crap and the moire expensive one's are not worth buying when there are way bettere choices to select from.

First your going to need to find a guitar you will want to keep in the future so you can base what guitar you will but as a starter guitar. Personally I went with a Gibson SG(Standard about $1000) that's what I would have when I am more experianced(which was about 1-3 years). Then you have to find a similar, cheaper guitar in both price and quality(around $100-200 dollars) and thats when I got a Regal SG(which I doubt anyone has heard of.) Side by side they will look very similar but if you look at the fine details they are very different.

Then you have to get some cheap crappy amp maybe a peavy(but never ANY of their guitars) or some other brand like a Dinosaur(I have no idea where my dad got this piece of crap) about $200-300 dollars and somewhere between 35-75 watts.

And if you choose to continue your musical journey you must then get a better quality amp(Trust me when you I ran my crappy regal through a Line 6 amp it sounded about 100x better before my friends just thought that I just sucked) and it should cost about $300-500 dollars and be about 100 watts and up(depending on how much your willing to pay.
[And yes Line 6 has some problems but, it has some effects on it, it's good for metal, and it's easy to understand and setup.]

After you get a decent amp your going to need a better guitar and it should cost somewhere from $600-1000(I first was going to get a $600 dollar guitar but if your going to go all the way then you will think of the quality instead of the price.)

And if you still want to pursue in your quest of music a suggest you get some kind of stack find a good company or whatever fits your liking but heads can go from 300-1000and up and heads are about the same each.

And after you have found your sound outlet of choice you should get your fav guitar brand and customize it to your liking(Pick-ups,whammy bars, etc.) And effects like pedalboards or whatever are also options anything at this point will be to increase your sound by any means.

But it really all depends on how much you want to spend and how good you want to sound. These are always two things that sooner or later will surpass the other. I hope this helps out someone at some point in time if not at the moment I hope that your quest for the True Sound will be a pleasnt journey.

HAIL BUCKETHEAD!!!

Well, here I am again... I paid my visit to some stores and saw some pretty interesting things...
Here are my options:

-Yamaha ERG-121
-Washburn X-20
-Ibanez RG170DX

The prices are pretty much the same, something round ? 200, so I should probably choose whatever sounds to me better... Between Yamaha and Washburn, I liked more the sound of the second. The sound was pretty much the same, but I didn't like how the strings sounded in the first when I was scratching them... So I'm heding more to Washburn... The third choice is not available yet, so I'll have to wait some weeks to try it....
Well, tell me your opinions, if you have heard anything about those models...

About the amplifiers? Well, I think I'm not going to buy one yet... I'll just connect it to my pc and use programms like "Guitar FX" or somehting else similar I've found before... The employee at the store insiosted of buy an amplifier instead of using my pc, but I'll take my chances first on my pc and after some time, when I'll collect money again, then buy a good one, probably at the price of the guitar, or even more...

Written by iaberis on 21.10.2006 at 09:52

Well, here I am again... I paid my visit to some stores and saw some pretty interesting things...
Here are my options:

-Yamaha ERG-121
-Washburn X-20
-Ibanez RG170DX

The prices are pretty much the same, something round ? 200, so I should probably choose whatever sounds to me better... Between Yamaha and Washburn, I liked more the sound of the second. The sound was pretty much the same, but I didn't like how the strings sounded in the first when I was scratching them... So I'm heding more to Washburn... The third choice is not available yet, so I'll have to wait some weeks to try it....
Well, tell me your opinions, if you have heard anything about those models...

About the amplifiers? Well, I think I'm not going to buy one yet... I'll just connect it to my pc and use programms like "Guitar FX" or somehting else similar I've found before... The employee at the store insiosted of buy an amplifier instead of using my pc, but I'll take my chances first on my pc and after some time, when I'll collect money again, then buy a good one, probably at the price of the guitar, or even more...

Out of the three options I'd go with the Ibanez not sure about the models but Ibanez is a pretty standard guitar if you're going for metal.
I'll check the models out and see what others think about them.

Written by iaberis on 21.10.2006 at 09:52

The employee at the store insiosted of buy an amplifier instead of using my pc, but I'll take my chances first on my pc and after some time, when I'll collect money again, then buy a good one, probably at the price of the guitar, or even more...

Don't let those bastards at the sho[p talk you into buying anything you don't want to , dey only wanna make money. As for the three guitar choices, is the Ibanez from the GIO series? If so then i know someone who has one of those and for the price it's pretty decent. Pretty chunky sound actually. Don't know about the other two though.

hi guys about the topic now....

I think that the best way to get a nice guitar is the following.
firstly you need a guitar with a high quality body (the lighter, the better),
you should try something such as the washburn you mentioned above.
after that you can change the pickups and get top quality sound.
i wouldn't advise you to buy a guitar ecquiped with good pick ups because you can modify, it spendig half of the money
personally i bought a washburn wi-64 and put on two emg's.

Yeah I agree with the last one! You can change it, so I finally choose the Washburn solution but the X-22
It's a pretty piece... I'll post a pic of it soon

if you like a smooth sound try a s.duncan, if you want very hard sound try an Emg, you won't regret it.